Grand Prix of Long Beach

With its big name and big-name drivers, the Penske Racing team has not won an IndyCar series championship since Sam Hornish Jr. won it in 2006. That’s seven years.

That’s been with Helio Castroneves and Will Power, two terrific drivers, for the past five years. Castroneves has three Indianapolis 500 race wins, but the best he’s been able to do in the series is second-place finishes in 2002, 2008 and 2013. Power has 18 race wins in his five years with Penske. He finished second in points three consecutive seasons, beginning in 2010.

Power, who won this season’s series opener in St. Petersburg, Fla., is upset about it. He admits it’s a point of discussion among team members.

“Yeah, being so close the last few years, it just seems to not work out at the end of the season,” Power said. “Obviously, it’s something that we’re all aware of on the team.”

Power did not get into specifics, but he said the team has done a few things differently for 2014.

“I really feel as though we had one of our best offseasons this year,” the Australian said. “Definitely kind of changed up philosophies a little bit, thinking outside the box.

“So, yeah, it’s in our minds, for sure. That is our objective this year. We want to win the bloody championship.”

Pruett on Tudor pole

Scott Pruett waited until the final Prototype lap to go the fastest to take the pole for Saturday’s 100-minute Tudor United SportsCar Tequila Patron Showcase.

After a four-minute red flag to clear a stalled car driven by Ryan Dalziel off the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach course, Pruett put down a 1 minute, 15.325 second, 94.056 MPH last lap of the 15-minute session.

“It’s certainly better to start in front,” the Northern Californian said. “I’ve been here when it is green-checkered with no yellows and I’ve been here with crash after crash after crash after crash. You do not know what to expect. That is the thing you enjoy about Long Beach.

“We unloaded and the car was fast. It was just fine tuning it.”

Oswaldo Negri Jr. came close on his final lap, 0.041 seconds behind Pruett. Both were driving Riley Daytona Prototypes.

Pruett said the teams had to go out after the red flag, even though his Chip Ganassi Racing team car already was in the top spot.

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“If we were sitting in the pits and not gone back out and lost, then we would be kicking ourselves the whole time. We absolutely had to go out.”

It was Pruett’s 33rd pole in a sports car and the first for the Ford EcoBoost. He will hand the car off to Memo Rojas at some point in the race.

Jan Magnussen, driving the new Corvette C7-R had the top qualifying time in the separate 15-minute GT Le Mans series qualifying session in 1:17.939.

“I had to find a gap and work a little bit and then to find a little bit here and there,” he said. “I didn’t hit any walls.”

He will hand his car off to Antonio Garcia. Corvette has won at Long Beach four times.

Andretti name missing

This the track that the Andretti family built.

That’s figuratively. Mario Andretti’s victory in the Formula One race in 1977 truly helped establish the street circuit as an important racing venue. He won at Long Beach the first two times IndyCar ran the track in 1984-85 and again in 1987. His son, Michael, won in 1986 and again in 2002.

His son, Marco, has a best finish of sixth at Long Beach, in 2009.

“This is on my wish list for sure,” Marco said. “My dad and I talked (about) how cool it would be for three generations to win on one track. I’m definitely not pleased with my Long Beach record so far.”

He had the 15th fastest practice time on Friday.

Frequent flier supreme

IndyCar driver Mike Conway is racing on the next six Sundays.

Usually that might not be a big deal. But for Conway, it will include four trips across the Atlantic Ocean.

After racing in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on Sunday, he will go to Silverstone, England for a WEC sports car race on Easter Sunday. It’s back to the States for the April 27 IndyCar race at Barber in Birmingham, Ala., to Belgium and Spa-Francorchamps for another WEC race on May 3 and then to Indianapolis for the first IndyCar road race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on May 10.